The provincial Livestock Department has prepared a vaccine to protect chickens from bid flu virus and it has been provided to various poultry farms across the province.
Punjab Livestock and Dairy Development Department Secretary Baber Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad told Business Recorder here on Saturday that the provincial government was well aware of the problem emerging out due to bird flu virus and had adopted necessary precautionary measures.
Baber Yaqoob added that the deportment was keeping strict supervision upon the poultry industry in the country. He further said that veterinary experts under the supervision of Dr Khushi Muhammad had been able to prepare a vaccine, which would also be available in the open market from May 8. He said that that vaccination was being marketed on the basis of no-loss and no-profit.
To a query, he pointed out that random samples of the birds were being collected throughout the province, and the department did not want to hide any information regarding the bird flu because need of the hour was to create maximum awareness among the masses about bird flu virus.
The officials of research institute of the Livestock Department who were carrying out research on the cases of bird flu were facing stress because they feared some adverse reaction, he observed.
"A comprehensive action plan has been chalked out with the co-ordination of various concerned departments including, health, food, city district government, and local administration of different cities to protect the people from any difficult situation," he said.
Livestock Secretary further pointed out that Health Department had already made special arrangement in the hospitals to handle the cases of bird flu virus, however, no case of bird flu virus had been detected in the human beings.